July 13, 2023
Nick here at Hook’d Up Seafood with a huge Thank You to you all who have supported us over the past year…that’s right – Hook’d Up Seafood turns 1 year old this Saturday.
Growing up on the Gulf Coast, markets like ours are common – every little coastal town has 1. It’s where people gather, share stories, gossip about the news of the town, and get the freshest catch.
I’m reminded of a story when I was in high school, the summer before my senior year. Baseball season had ended and I was working at the local fish market, Fairhope Fish Company, a beautiful market that overlooked Mobile Bay, the sunsets are really spectacular. I would open up the market early to accept deliveries of fresh shrimp at 4 am. So by 6, when no one showed up, I was wondering what was going on! We didn’t have cell phones back in ‘97, so I took the rotary dial phone hanging on the wall and called the owner of the market…no answer. Then I started calling the shrimpers, at home to figure out what’s up. Again, no answer.
Fishermen are up early, it’s 6am, this makes no sense. Scratching my head, I just walk outside to see if they could maybe see them coming down the road or something. As soon as I go outside, I see a parade of people with nets and coolers in hand, marching towards The Bay.
At that point, every ounce of confusion I had, immediately made sense. A Jubilee was going on; and Fairhope, Alabama came to an abrupt halt.
For those unfamiliar, a Jubilee is a semi-rare, natural phenomenon that only really happens along the shores of Mobile Bay. When a jubilee is happening all the people living near the water will alert all their neighbors so everyone can rush down with their nets and coolers, and gather their fill of fresh seafood. The vegetation in the depths of The Bay sometimes sucks up all the oxygen in the water and forces the fish to swim into the shallow shoreline to get oxygen. Crabs, shrimp, flounder, sharks, etc are all easily caught by hand nets during a jubilee. We just wade out and scoop up what we want.
A jubilee can never be predicted. It’s one of those spontaneous gifts from nature that brings a small town together to share.
At Hook’d Up Seafood we’re thrilled to be able to bring friends and families together through good quality and fresh seafood.
We are so happy and grateful to serve everyone who has given us the opportunity to do it and for this important reason we want to celebrate this amazing milestone with all of you by offering some awesome anniversary specials during the month of July.
Thanks for all your support and we hope to delight all of you and even more people in our community for many more years.